Morten Dyssel, senior lecturer in German literature and chair of the Danish Thomas Mann Society, takes on one of world literature's major works: Goethe's tragedy Faust. The lecture starts from the critical diagnosis of contemporary society by German sociologist and social philosopher Hartmut Rosa.
Rosa argues that modernity's growing acceleration, with its demands for constant growth and instrumental control, leads to alienation. In a high-speed society, stillness feels like a loss of life itself, and people lose the connection to the world they no longer resonate with. Goethe's Faust, especially its second part, offers a historical account of this process, where progress brings fascinating liberation but also alienation and nihilism.
The talk is framed as an inquiry into the good life and what keeps us from feeling meaning in our existence.
